Wednesday, January 7, 2009

His pterosaurus art is alarmingly triggery. Viewing them has put goosebumps on my inner pterodactyl in ways I couldn't possibly have imagined. Mind you, these are not fantasies. These are thoroughly researched, precision renderings of these amazing giants that once filled our skies and bobbled upon our seas. The image you see here was included in a recently published peer-reviewed paper that presented research suggesting that pterosaurs such as Thalassodromeus (seen here) could not skim-feed in the manner of the skimming bird, Rynchops (also seen here). Read his ripping account of the perilous experiments that yielded these findings here.

Mark is a visionary young man with a full quiver of complementary talents - including a biting sense of humor and a dizzying sense of purpose. I'm proud to welcome his science-backed art into the humble realms of the Hypnogogic Zoo.

("Why should everything be made to look like insane escapades?" by Mark Witton)

This site is generally about our visceral, inexplicable, and sometimes ecstatic connection to animals and/or artistic representations of animals. It attempts to understand what animals mean to us both as living creatures and as powerful symbols that reach deep into our mind's eye and shape many aspects of our own consciousness.

Anthroporphism is something we seem biologically programed to do. As humans, we are prone to sentimentalize objects, ideas, and of course, animals to fit our perceptual, behavioral, and emotional apparatus. Since we can never fully comprehend the inner life of an animal, how shall we treat their "otherness" as we share life on Earth together? With respect to be certain. Still, we are left with our own skewed and humanized impressions, which manifest over and over in our culture - powerful reminders of our chosen "departure" from the nature and our animal cousins.